Former stripper and current murder convict Crystal Mangum He admitted to lying about being raped by Duke lacrosse players interview On Independent Media's “Let's Talk to Kat” on Thursday.
“I falsely testified against them by saying they raped me when they didn't, which was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,” Mangum said. “(I) made up a story It wasn't true Because I wanted validation from people, not from God.”
Mangum, who is serving prison time for killing her boyfriend, falsely accused three Duke players of raping her while she was performing at a block party in March 2006. The players she accused were arrested, sparking a national controversy and conversations about racism. The allegations even led to the team having to cancel a game against Georgetown.
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In this archive photo from August 2010, Crystal Mangum, who was at the center of the Duke University lacrosse scandal, is accused of stabbing a man on April 3, 2011, in an apartment in Durham, North Carolina. (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News Observer/MCT)
The three players, David Evans, Colin Finnerty and Reed Seligman, were all found innocent of the crimes. But Mangum was not tried for perjury because of questions about her mental health.
“I probably actually believed many of the different stories she was telling,” former North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said at the time.
Mangum cannot be tried for perjury now because the statute of limitations on perjury charges in North Carolina only lasts about two years.
Former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who served as lead prosecutor in the case, said in March 2006: interview with CBS News that “there is no doubt that a sexual assault occurred” and that it was “racially motivated.”
CRYSTAL GAIL MANGUM: Profile of the duke's rape accused
Crystal Mangum (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News Observer/MCT)
“The information I have leads me to conclude that a rape occurred,” Nifong said. “The circumstances of the rape suggest a deep racial motivation to some of the things that were committed. It makes the crime inherently one of the most offensive and offensive crimes there is.”
Nifong was later disbarred on June 16, 2007 by the North Carolina State Bar for lying in court and withholding DNA evidence which ultimately exonerated the defendants from liability for Mangum's claims.
Mangum also confirmed that “something” happened that night in a book she published in 2008 called The Last Dance of Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.
“I would never say nothing ever happened that night,” she wrote.
Mangum was indicted on first-degree murder and two counts of robbery in March 2011. A year earlier, she was convicted of misdemeanor charges after starting a fire that nearly burned down her home with her three children inside. In videotaped police questioning, she told officers she got into a confrontation with her then-boyfriend, not Day, burned his clothes, smashed his car's windshield and threatened to stab him.
According to North Carolina Department of Corrections records, she was born on July 18, 1978, to a truck driver. The youngest of three children, she grew up not far from the home where she was allegedly assaulted in 2006.
In 1993, when Mangum was 14, she was allegedly kidnapped by three men, taken to a house in Creedmoor, North Carolina, 15 miles from Durham, and raped. She said one of the men was her boyfriend at the time and was a physically and emotionally abusive man who was seven years her senior.
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In this archive photo from August 2010, Crystal Mangum, who was at the center of the Duke University lacrosse scandal, is accused of stabbing a man early Sunday, April 3, 2011, in an apartment in Durham, North Carolina. (Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT)
Mangum filed an incident report on Aug. 18, 1996, three years after the alleged rapes occurred, Creedmoor Police Chief Ted Pollard said. But the case was not pursued, because the accused withdrew the charges against her for fear of her life, according to her relatives.
Vincent Clark, a friend who co-authored Mangum's self-published memoir, said he hopes people don't rush to judgment — echoing one of the lessons often cited in the lacrosse case itself.
Clark said Mangum realizes she has mental health issues.
“I'm sad for her,” Clark said. “I hope people realize how difficult it was for her to be her.”
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